The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Crewe Alexandra Saturday 26th August 2023 3:00pm

Some of the behaviour of our fans and the stuff they were shouting toward Drysdale was out of order. No problem with a level of banter but continuous shouts of nonce and paedophile, is that really the level of fan that goes to games these days?

 

Absolutely and I've no problem with those people being removed from the stadium.

I'm still not buying that as an acceptable reason for his behaviour though.

 

I think a lot of the vitriol also comes from our own ignorance.
At the end of last season a player from the opposition was fouled resulting in a card for our player.
In the laws this means the fouled player doesn’t have to leave the field after receiving treatment.
I confess,I didn’t know this rule and I suspect most of the others in the ground didn’t either.
It was only pointed out from a bit of Googling after the game.

This lack of knowledge resulted in the ref receiving absolute dogs abuse for the rest of the game and every decision we didn’t get was based on him supposedly “not knowing what he was doing” when it was in fact 17,000 fans who didn’t know.

 

Crikey, am I fighting on Saturday night? Better put a bit of training in.

 

I have heard those chants at refs and players it is inexcusable but once again professional referees need to ignore such disgusting behaviour and carry on with the job in hand. Our stewards need eject fans for chanting.

 

Let’s be honest here. Your regular fans just wants to come and enjoy his or her football not read through reams of updates on the rules of the game every season. I quite frankly cannot be bothered.

 

But the fans at that game based all their anger and frustration on an incorrect assumption that the ref was wrong.
Imagine it that was Drysdale who was reffing that game and somebody decided to do something stupid.
100% correct decision made by him but the crowd would have exploded.

We can’t have it both ways.

 

This whole Drysdale thing is primarily based on something that happened 17 years ago.
If it was any other player than Windass it wouldn’t have got a second mention.

For the record I think he’s a jumped up,egotistical prick who loves all the publicity he gets.

We better get used to it though because he won’t be changing anytime soon

 

I've had to mute him on twitter. Did my head in.

 

Good teams make the referee irrelevant. We know what Drysdale is like, so manage it. Get on the front foot and control the game.

 

What do you suggest then? We all sit there like good boys and girls nodding approvingly without decent? Or maybe a course on the updated rules every season which is mandatory before we can buy a season ticket?

 

When I don’t notice who the ref is and I forget about him during the match then he is a good ref in my view.

 

Horses for courses.
Crewe have a lot more pace than us.

City 1
Crewe 2

 

Not at all.
I aimed my anger at the ref regarding the incident mentioned earlier.
What I do find a bit strange however,is how in no game this season have we discussed the refs proposed performance 72 hours before a ball has even been kicked.

Darren will be loving the fact he’s the main topic of conversation and people are mentioning his name (good or bad) on the Wednesday before a weekend game.

 

City 1-1 Crewe

We go a goal up looking to get a 2nd and Hughes sits us back for the last 35 minutes and they equalise and go again

As for Drysdale he ain't good don't get me wrong but when the so called elite with the assistance of VAR get it wrong week after what do you expect at our level ????

 

This is a good point.

Unfortunately we're just one of many in this division, and the games are so close, we can't afford for a referee making silly decisions.

But neither can anybody else.

In the face of a game with a referee like Drysdale, you'd hope Hughes would be talking about discipline - not giving away silly fouls - and considering how we've been conceding from needless free kicks, that's particularly important going in to this Saturday.

Don't give Drysdale any reason to give shocking decisions against us, or at least limit it as much as we can.

He might not give us a penalty or a big decision, so let's not go in looking for them, either.

All easier said than done, but with the right attitude expecting no favours or gifts, we can dictate how we attack. Shots on goal, shot on sight, they've got a teenage goalkeeper who is conceding more than Lewis, get at him right away and make him crack under the VP pressure.

That will reduce the impact of Drysdale or anyone else.

 

Well, lots of talk about going back to a flat back four on here but I expect that not only will Hughes stick with his new system (with which I agree) but will name the exact same starting 11 as at Morecambe (injuries permitting). I reckon he'll do that old manager staple 'give em a chance to put it right'.

 

Thinking the same. Maybe Walker for Smith the only change.